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Topic: How many frames are need for brood? (Read 896 times)

To make a long story short. I have one hive that was queenless. I added a frame of eggs from another hive and they have built them some queen cells. The queen should emerge some time next week.

During the time of no queen, the bees have filled all of the frames with nectar. (I have 2-10 frame deeps for brood). So now the hive is honey bound. I want to take some frames out and add empty frames for the new queen to lay.

How many frames should she have for laying? I was thinking of taking 5 frames from each deep.

Depends on the overall population of the hive. If it has a large population then moving 3-4 frames of stores up into a super and replacing it with combs or foundation for the queen to lay in is fine. If the population is small less frames can be inserted.

You can't put more frames into the hive for them to develop than the bees, as a cluster, can cover completely. Bees can abandon capped storage cells with no ill affect but that is not true of their "living space" aka brood chamber. It is better to put in a new frame for brood use at a time and building up the brood chamber or several weeks than putting too many empty frames into the middle of the hive. I would start with 2, if you use a super the frames can be rotated into place and the bees still have the safety of all their labors in stores. You'll end up with a much stronger hive overall.

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I asked a similar question of my mentor this last weekend. His advice was to add a honey super. The bees will move the honey out of the brood chamber and into the super. Then the queen will have room to lay her eggs.